Judge Ian Farlam during a sitting of the Marikana commission of inquiry.
"Pursuant to the announcements made by the legal representatives of the accused and injured miners and the families, our clients have also instructed us to provisionally withdraw from participating in the commission," the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) said in a statement on Wednesday.
It was instructed to do so until a North Gauteng High Court ruling on lawyer Dali Mpofu's application for the state to fund the legal team. Mpofu is representing the mineworkers wounded and arrested during the Marikana labour unrest last year.
The centre was representing the Bench Marks Foundation in the commission.
On Monday, Mpofu announced his legal team's withdrawal from the commission. "Our instructions [from the mineworkers] are to await the judgment and at that point to receive further instructions. In the meantime, we will not be participating for the victims," he said at the time.
"If we are back later on in the week, we will have the extra burden of catching up with what would have happened [at the commission]."
Payment for the legal team
On June 21, Mpofu told the commission that, due to financial constraints, it could be his last day representing the miners.
He then brought the urgent court application seeking funding for representing the mineworkers. Mpofu wants President Jacob Zuma and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to approve payment for the mineworkers' legal team.
On Tuesday, lawyers for families of miners killed in Marikana also provisionally pulled out of the commission.
Nicole Lewis, who represents the families at the commission, announced they were acting in solidarity with the mineworkers who were wounded and arrested on August 16.
The commission is investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 44 mineworkers in strike-related violence in Marikana in August. – Sapa